Piece of String Part 2

Piece of String .......Part 2

I thought quite early on that the route would take us back to Streatly, and was quite pleased as I had been wanting to do the Kennett and Avon Canal as a training run for ages so here it was but in a race.
Kate and I were running along discussing what we thought the distance was going to be and we both thought about 150 miles, at one stage we even said we could end up joining the winter 100 race.

Off we set again and I think Ian was with us now as we headed along the canal.I was sure we had to head to Bradford on Avon .This is where I am a bit confused to our whereabouts but anyway we got lost, ultrarunners seem to have an ability to get lost in any given situation ,well most of us ,but hey ho that's all part of it.


Kate ,Ian and I were going along quite nicely when we lost the bloody canal,but as a bonus after wondering around we found a lovely coffee shop and all had a cappuchino,it was fantastic.Eventually with directions from the girl in the café we got back on track.
Ian was suffering with a stomach bug and was feeling quite ill but we persuaded him to keep going from the aid station.
Back on track (literally) and we plodded on to  Devizes to the next aid station where Ian had decided to drop out which was a real shame .Dave who was the only person behind us kept popping up at the aid stations just as we were leaving each time , he had a good plan with the run walk run and was looking good on it .



It was dark now so headtorches donned and ipods at the ready we headed off again to, I just don't have a clue where we went next . Kate was having real difficulties with bad cramping in her quads through the night but she is made of stern stuff after all she has completed some big races 2 of which were the Grand Union Canal 145 miles (which I really wanted to do next year but missed out on the ballot) and she also completed The Thames Ring 250 miler.

During the night I started having a few issues with the stomach and was hoping it wasn't going to be another night of being ill.
On we went toward another aid station Kate singing away to her music and me belting out Jessie J , Pink and Bowie songs Thankfully nobody else could hear us. Just before the the next aid station I was feeling really sick so Kate gave me some ginger hoping it would settle my stomach, did it hell, when we reached the station I threw up and all I could taste was ginger ,Thanks Kate.Ha Ha. We left there and continued on our journey.
The sun was coming up and it was still nice weather ,even the night didn't seem that cold. Kate was still soldiering on and I really felt for her now although I was still trying to push her on. We got to the aid station where James greeted us and I had my first ever pot noodle ,probably not the best thing after throwing up but I had to eat something or my race would be over. James told us we were near the cut offs  so we had to get a move on eating our noodles as we pressed on. By now Kate was clearly in trouble and kept telling me to go on she was going to pull out .I think she did amazing to get that far and it was a pleasure to have her company to that point.
Thank-you Kate you are truly a tough cookie!!!!

Part 3 to come soon!!!!!